Smethwick-born Julie, who played Mrs Overall, the cleaner in Acorn Antiques, said: “I had an email off Victoria Wood just the other day. She said ‘Let’s meet for a cuppa, I want to talk about a film’.

“Come to think of it, it’s probably nothing to do with me. She probably just wants to ask me a question.”

Victoria started her career on U.K. TV talent show New Faces in 1973, with her comedy sketch shows becoming a popular fixture on British television in the 1980s.

She was also renowned as the writer and star of a number of sitcoms including Acorn Antiques, which debuted in 1985 and followed a female run antiques shop and Dinnerladies, a comedy about canteen staff which ran from 1998 to 2000. She retired from TV performing in 2010.

Victoria won four British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards throughout the course of her career and was awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997 and became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2008.

She separated from husband Geoffrey Durham aka magician the Great Soprendo in 2002 and is survived by their children Grace and Henry.

Other tributes arrived online from across the British and international media scenes:

So sad to hear about Victoria Wood. A great comic performer & writer whose talent broke through a male dominated scene.